There is nothing like listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies to get you into the Christmas holiday spirit. We love to listen to Christmas songs once the Thanksgiving holiday is over, even though many radio stations begin playing traditional and classic Christmas songs in September in some places, which is way too early for us.

Our Christmas tradition has been to put up the Christmas tree over the weekend following Thanksgiving, hang up all the Christmas ornaments, decorate the house with all the Christmas decorations and lights all while listening to Christmas music. Our taste in holiday music varies widely, from the classic Christmas songs everyone knows, to rock to country to Christian to pop to R&B music, you name it.

Every year as the holiday season approaches, we begin downloading Christmas songs and complete albums to add to our collection. One of our favorite things to do is find and buy all of the new Christmas releases from our favorite singers, which is why Amazon’s list of Christmas music downloads is the first place we look for free and cheap Christmas songs to download.

As always, Amazon offers a good selection of 25 days of Free Christmas music downloads, with songs added each day of the month in December until Christmas Day. Free and inexpensive Christmas music for kids and adults can be downloaded and played on a variety of music devices, or to listen to on your computer.

Creating a Christmas music collection doesn’t have to be expensive, nor should it be. Amazon offers Christmas music for under $10, under $5 and yes, Free Christmas music. Check out Amazon’s list of 100 Christmas albums for $5 dollars each and see if you don’t find a few you’ve been wanting for your collection from virtually every music genre, including one of my personal favorites, Josh Groban.

No Christmas song collection would be complete without The Christmas Shoes song and soundtrack by Newsong. Christmas songs and cd’s by Bob Carlisle is always at the top of our list, and we’re always on the watch for any and all new releases from Bob C. Cute and funny kids Christmas songs is just as fun for adults to listen to, so our collection of Christmas music includes many of the most popular, well-known and best rated Christmas songs for kids that even us grownups can enjoy.

Old, classic Christmas carols that are sung by a variety of famous performers are part of our collection too, and the more we listen to the various songs on the cd’s, we’re better able to learn all the words to Christmas songs unfamiliar to us. I’ve never gone Christmas caroling around neighborhoods before (or is it Carolling, with two L’s?), but having Karaoke cd’s of Christmas songs for friends and family to sing along with during holiday gatherings is about as close to being Christmas caroler’s as we’re going to get.

I’ve been an R&B music fan for most of my life, and my collection of Christmas music will always include a large variety of my favorite and soulful R&B Christmas songs from famous Motown artists. For me, it doesn’t matter if it’s traditional R&B Christmas songs or R&B classics by Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Smokey Robinson, Luther Vandross, Brian McKnight, The Staple Singers, The Isley Brothers, Bebe Winans, Cece Winans, Al Green, Ray Charles, Babyface, Mary Mary, or many others I could list because I love R&B music that much. (Classical Christmas songs and Hip Hop music, not so much)

We’re big Country music fans as well, and if we’re not listening to Country Christmas songs on the cd player in the car, more often than not we’ve got xmas music playing on one of our favorite country music radio stations until we’re ready to switch channels over to classic rock for awhile. Country music cd’s by Alan Jackson, Sugarland, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Trisha Yearwood, George Strait, Collin Raye, Clint Black, Brenda Lee, Martina McBride, Alabama, Kenny Chesney, and of course Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd, just to name a few.

Above all the different kinds of modern or contemporary Christmas music I enjoy listening to, my absolute favorite music to listen to over the Christmas holiday season includes many religious, Christian Christmas songs of praise and worship that remind us of the real true meaning of Christmas. Giving and receiving Christmas gifts is wonderful and fun, as are the many parties and family gatherings, but it’s especially nice to just sit and relax and enjoy the Christmas holiday remembering why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.